LAKESIDE  Audrey Reynolds has spent much of the past seven years helping hundreds of horses that otherwise would be destined for abandonment or slaughter. She knows the heartbreak and disappointment that accompany the equine side of animal rescue.

The Alpine resident is a former show jumper and rider who suffered a career-ending injury nearly 20 years ago. She now spends the majority of her days working to educate the public about the realities of horse breeding and horse racing as she rescues, rehabilitates and finds homes for as many of the animals as she can.

“While racegoers enjoy a day at the races watching these magnificent and beautiful animals run their hearts out for money, I bet they don’t think for a moment where the horses go at the end of their racing career,” Reynolds says. “ Most of them go to slaughter.”

Reynolds puts her efforts into saving animals as the co-founder and president of Saving Horses Inc., a nonprofit group. It’s mostly a one-woman show, though Reynolds has a volunteer who comes three mornings a week; another person comes on Saturdays to give her a hand with six horses that are boarded in Lakeside.

The group is moving this month as Reynolds and her husband, Neal, relocate to the Olivenhain area. The horses at their Lakeside sanctuary — Beau, age 20; Gracie, 19; Pirate, 16; El Nuki, 14; Buddy, 8; and Aero, 8 — will be moving to a 2½-acre home along with three more horses Reynolds has in Alpine, rescues Lucky Girl, 19; Dolly, 16; and Tuffy, a 30-year-old quarter horse gelding, who was her event horse when she rode competitively. Tuffy was also a rescue horse, “picked up by a cowboy at a local auction, then sold to me,” Reynolds said, when Tuffy was 4.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, nearly 120,000 American horses are slaughtered in Mexico and Canada annually, their meat shipped to Europe for human consumption. A federal ban on slaughtering horses in the United States went into effect in 2006, but the law lapsed two years ago.

It is also illegal to ship horses out of California for slaughter, but Reynolds says the law is not enforced.

Consequently, she says, many healthy horses are given up and end up at auctions. Reynolds goes to auctions and tries to save them from people known in the rescue world as “kill buyers,” who buy the horses for meat consumption. She also has rescued and found homes for horses from the kill buyers’ feed lots, pregnant mares and Bureau of Land Management mustangs. She has rescued elderly, physically challenged and emaciated horses.

In the worst cases, Reynolds will go to an auction on a “mercy mission,” in which she will buy a distressed horse and immediately take it to be euthanized.

“It takes me a week to recover emotionally,” Reynolds said. “I’m a real wreck after some of these auctions.”

As it readies to move, the group has applied for grants to purchase new fencing, but is still $5,000 short of its fencing fund goal.

“It is a struggle each month just to have the necessary funding to feed and care for the horses; this fencing fund is over and above what we usually need,” Reynolds says.

There is some hopeful news on the horizon for horse lovers like Reynolds. In March, Congress introduced the Safeguard American Food Exports Act. The legislation aims to ban the export of American horses for slaughter, reinstitute a ban on slaughtering horses in the United States and protect the public from consuming horse meat.

How you can help

Saving Horses Inc. will host a fundraising trail ride from 9 to 11 on April 27 at Tumblewood Arena on Willow Road in Lakeside. Cost is $30 and includes brunch after the two-hour ride along a sandy river bottom. Raffle tickets will be available for purchase. Brunch-only tickets are $10.

A “Casino Night” is also planned for June 1 at the Lakeside Rodeo Grounds to raise funds for Saving Horses Inc.

For more information on either event, call Reynolds at (619) 247-7237 or send an email to audreyd1@cox.net